Québec solidaire has proudly proclaimed its alter-globalist roots and sought to contact and deepen relationships with social movements and left organizations across North America and the world. But this is not enough, and a more pro-active approach must be taken towards the burgeoning popular and left movements in the USA and Canada particularly. There is much to be shared on common issues such as immigration and the environment, and a lot to be learned from each other in terms of building popular left organizations rooted in the working classes.

The first ever pan-Canadian social forum will be held this year in Ottawa from August 21 to 24. More than 10,000 participants from all over Canada are expected to come to the University of Ottawa to discuss ways and means of combating the austerity policies of the Harper regime and the provincial governments. Read activist and organiser Roger Rashi detail the scale of the forum.

The Cochabamba Conference on Climate Change has issued a call to build “a global peoples movement for climate justice”. A novel feature of this call is that it is supported by progressive countries, mainly those of the Alba Alliance (Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, etc), as well as by social movements, primarily but not exclusively, from Latin America.